Friday, May 21, 2010

A Week of Firsts

It's been a busy week and it's going to continue to get even busier! We've had a number of "firsts" this week.

Swimming With the Sharks
Ok, so they haven't done that yet. But the boys did complete their swimming lessons and they are now very capable swimmers! They take lessons each year at the university; it's intense. Lessons run daily for 2 weeks and the kids pretty much hate the lessons. But I told them that if they did really well and were able to swim by the end (they were already swimmers, I just wanted to know that I could take my eyes off them this summer at the pool since my attention is going to be on our littlest family member who most definitely cannot swim) then they would never have to take lessons again (unless they want to). Not only did they progress to the next level of lessons, but they are ready to swim with the sharks at Disney! Whether or not they actually swim with the sharks will determine whether or not they have to take lessons again next year!

Family Run
The kids' school sponsored a family run and the middle 3 kids participated. (The baby is too small and my oldest was on a school trip. The run was scheduled for last week, so as to not interfere with the trip, but just as it was about to start, the skies opened and it rained for hours. Soooo, they rescheduled the race for tonight, which meant that my husband, who is chaperoning the trip, and my oldest daughter, could not race.) The kids have never raced before, and I had my doubts, but they did a great job! My 5 year old ran the 200m race, FAST! And then he got in line to run the 1 Mile Loop! He lost steam towards the end, but overall, it was amazing that he kept up with the big kids! After a rest, he got in line to do the adult 5K! There was no way he was going to make it through that so I pulled him out but his enthusiasm made me proud!

No Training Wheels
My 5 year old also mastered riding his bike without training wheels! He still isn't comfortable navigating intersections, but otherwise, he is keeping up with the big kids. Once a Langan kid learns to ride without stabilizers (as my Irish husband refers to them), they get to cycle up to Seven Eleven and choose a treat. Can you guess what he chose? Gum! I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but my rule is that you have to be 5 to chew gum in our house. (I found out the hard way that 5 is the minimum age to chew/discard appropriately.) So it's been a busy week since my little guy turned 5: birthday, biking, running, swimming!

First Birthday
And last, but not least, the baby turns 1 tomorrow so stay tuned!